Testors (Hawk) 1/48 Curtiss R3C-2 Jimmy Doolittle

Another little kit from the stash. I'll be starting the painting while I finish the Mystery Ship.

My first question. Here is the aircraft at the NASM. The major surfaces of the wings are the brass radiator panels. What are the wing ends and elevators? I am of two thoughts- clear dope on linen, or colored dope to match the brass over either linen or wood.

"The wings were covered with twoply spruce planking. 3/32-inch thick, forming a box structure that required no internal bracing. Among the interesting features were the low-drag wing radiators made of corrugated brass sheeting, .004-inch thick, covering much of the surface of both upper and lower wings with the corrugations running chordwise. The upper wing was flush with the top of the fuselage, permitting the pilot to see over the wing. All ribs were of spruce conforming to the Curtiss C-80 airfoil section, and the ailerons, made of metal, were fabric-covered. The cantilever vertical fin and horizontal stabilizer were of wood."

"The wings and elevators were painted gold; the fuselage, stabilizer, fin, struts, fairings, cowling, pontoons and/or wheels were all black."

I suspect the radiators were copper rather than brass. There are, of course, many alloys that make up brass, and they start as, and weather to, different colors. Testors has a fairly good copper color. I have noticed how often kits confuse copper, brass, and bronze in color information.

Very old kit but stunning when finished. I also have the Supermarine S6 and Macchi MC72 in the same scale. Now I need to get the Porco Rosso racer from Fine Molds!

BTW, I haven’t found any decent aftermarket source for the streamlined aero rigging used on these planes and many others of the interwar era such as P-6’s. There is some photo-etch out there that doesn’t come out looking right, and correct looking stainless steel wire, but only for large scale RC planes. I ended up buying straightened music wire and running it between two diamond files to get the correct cross section.